A man accused of killing an Apple Valley teen called the murder “very sad,” but insisted he was not responsible, the gun found by authorities didn’t belong to him and he “had no reason to ever harm” the recent high school graduate who was “a wonderful kid” and “like family to us.”

In a handwritten two-page letter to the Daily Press this week, Derrick Hill, 46, proclaimed his innocence in the Dec. 12 shooting of 18-year-old Robbie Paul Stone Johnson — a friend of Hill’s son who had been living rent-free with Hill and his wife.

Following a report of shots fired, San Bernardino County Sheriff’s Homicide detectives responded to the home in the 11000 block of Winterhawk Way and found Johnson dead in his room.

Detective Randolph German testified in court that there were two bullet holes in the door leading to Johnson’s room. He also said that a black .38 caliber revolver was recovered in the master bedroom, which is believed to be where Hill and his wife slept.

A reported visitor to the home during the shooting, Angel Imperial told detectives she was in the master bedroom when she first heard pounding on the door of another bedroom and then gunshots, according to testimony by Sgt. Robert Thacker.

Imperial told Thacker she went to Johnson’s room and saw Hill standing over the teen’s body, apologizing to him. Hill was arrested that day and later charged with murder and two counts of being a felon in possession of a firearm.

“I am not guilty,” Hill wrote. “Nobody can say they ever saw me shoot Robbie, because I didn’t do it.”

He claims his wife inherited the home furnished as-is and the gun, unknown to him, belonged to his deceased father-in-law.

“So how could I be charged with a weapon that I never knew existed until that day(?),” he wrote.

Hill suggested the gun was found to have not ever been fired, nor a match to the murder weapon. Yet, he also offers no alternative to what may have occurred that day.

He says since his arrest he has “suffered abuse” at the hands of the Sheriff’s Department, which resulted in a trip to the hospital following a May 30 court date.

An attempt to reach a sheriff’s spokesperson for comment Tuesday was not immediately successful.

Trial was expected to begin during that late-May hearing, but instead the court expressed doubt in Hill’s mental competence and ordered him to undergo a mental health evaluation.

A hearing on that evaluation is scheduled July 3, court records show. Until then, criminal proceedings have been suspended.

Hill has pleaded not guilty to all charges while denying special allegations against him related to prior prison terms for assault, arson and grand theft.

Friends of Johnson paid their respects the day after his death during a candlelight vigil outside of his home. One friend described him as “a really loving and caring guy,” who “loved BMX and hanging out with his friends.”

Hill was in custody Tuesday at West Valley Detention Center in lieu of $2.25 million bail, according to jail records.

Shea Johnson may be reached at 760-955-5368 or SJohnson@VVDailyPress.com. Follow him on Twitter at @DP_Shea.